Camilla Mitts - Finished!

I had a marathon knitting session this weekend while i watched "24 Hour Panel People" on the internet.
I started watching at 12pm Saturday and went to bed at just gone 6am Sunday! I didn't knit continuously though cos i was chatting on the internet, making tea, eating etc... plus i didn't want to give myself an injury!
I made it as far as the thumb row on Saturday and decided that would be a good place to stop for the night so when i picked it up on Sunday i was on row 26 of 43 and i flew through that while watching tv in a comfy chair as opposed to an ergonomic office chair which is where i spent Saturday.

The mitts are lovely, the merino is warm and soft, i love the pattern and the colours BUT i do not like several things :o(
The fairisle section is too long, i could easily get rid of the first pattern repeat and replace it with ribbing.
I HATE the thumbs, the hole is too big, it's in the wrong place, it doesn't fit right and it's hard to pick up the stitches with the fairisle pattern.
72 stitches for the ribbing is way too much, i ended up decreasing the purl sections to one stitch all the way round and then increasing on the body back up to 72.

And finally, through nobody's fault but my own, the left mitt is considerably bigger than the right! I have the same problem with socks as well, it's just as well my left hand and foot are larger than the right ;o)

We have progress!

I finally have some energy this week for some knitting!

Sprite's lovely friend Catherine managed to fix my awful thumb picking up last weekend at Unravel and today i finally got round to knitting a thumb! Honestly, such a small amount of knitting has never seemed such a challenge ::lol::

But, here it is!

There are some things i would change if i were to make this pattern again but that's only because i have stupid hands that aren't a normal size and shape!

Camilla progress

is coming along a treat :)

We don't have Sky+ but we have the freeview version and it's broke!
Normally we'd spend our evenings watching recorded programmes so that we can skip the ads but last night i was forced to endure terrestrial tv!! It was terrible! BUT it did allow me to make good progress on the mitten so it's not all bad i guess ;o)

I've made a change to the pattern already!
The ribbing was coming out way too big at 72 stitches so i ribbed 2 rounds, decreased alternate purls, ribbed 3 rounds, decreased the remaining purls and then ribbed another 14 rounds for a total of 20. It worked well, there's a little ruffley edge and the cuff fits nice and snugly. when i finished ribbing i just knit round increasing (kfb) into each purl and then knit another round so it was nice and even to start the colourwork.
I'm a two-handed knitter generally but last night i tried holding both colours in my right hand and i can do it but i find it more fiddly as the two strands kept entangling so i am sticking with two-handed for now :oD

mittens

I have an itch and it needs to be scratched!

This afternoon i shall be casting on Camilla in Yarn Yard "Hug" in Erica and Tadpoles for Ewe "Pedicure Yarn" in Orange Pineapple :oD

I was thinking of making a hat from the leftovers but i remembered that i don't actually like it that much, i have still yet to wear my Bellefleur (one of the WWKAL10 hats) as it's very warm and very heavy and i am contemlating frogging and reknitting in something a bit lighter :o/

Ummm, so it's FO-vember in this house!

The scarf kit i bought at IKnit on Saturday is now a scarf :oD

It's rather pretty i think, and the colour is divine!
I shall wash it and block it gently, it's a little scratchy for me to wear up round my chins at the moment. I've decided i want to wear it to the funeral on Tuesday to break up all that black and the weather is so miserable i want something comfy and cosy too.

I was thinking of getting a haircut. My other Uncle died ten years ago and my hair was this length then, i had a haircut so i looked smart for the funeral and hated it so much i had it all chopped off a short time after. I'm worried history will repeat itself :o(

I'm not very good at making hair decisions, i mean, i want a perm for heavens sake, how sane is that!! I'll do a poll on Saturday and see what the girls say!
Speaking of Saturday, guess which silly girl booked train tickets for an hour earlier than she meant to!?! What a numpty! It now means i will be travelling on my own and not meeting up with Jane, FatCat, Noo and Carolinne - but it does mean i get to have a coffee with Sprite before everyone else gets there :o)
Roll on Saturday!

In other knitting news - knitting will recommence on Ben's hat this evening. When i say recommence i actually mean i will be starting over cos it's going to be too small at 15" unstretched. It's no big deal, i have enough Grubby Tiger there for another and when Ben's is done i will have a "spare" for a Christmas present for someone :o)
I might just try going up a needle size rather than casting on more and see where that gets me *ponders*

OOPS! I've fallen off the (band)wagon already!

I wasn't happy with another swap parcel i was making up. It's complicated but basically i was going to make a hat then the strikes happened and some deliveries were delayed and i decided not to make the hat, then i dithered a bit and waited for something else to arrive and then i just plain old got caught up in "other stuff" and put the parcel to one side and now that's late too *extremely embarrassed and annoyed*
So, last night i decided to make the hat! For some reason i have had a hankering to try Fair Isle so i found a lovely easy pattern in Simply Knitting and cast it on at about 8pm, and then at approximately 11pm i cast it off :oD
It was SO easy! OK, it was only one round of Fair Isle every 3 rounds and it was only two colours and it was only K1A, K1B, repeat around, but i really got the hang of it! It would have been even better had i actually used two yarns of the same weight but i got confused :o(
It looks OK though, and hopefully it will fit the munchkin it's made for *crosses fingers, toes and anything else that's available for crossing*
So, there's no stopping me now, December will be cast on a proper Fair Isle pattern month, i quite like the idea of some mittens or handwarmers maybe... Ooooh, i saw a pattern somewhere that's gloves or handwarmers, i shall have to hunt for it again cos it was lovely :o)

NO-vember will resume tonight with either Hexagon Blankie getting a go or some more Clapotis. Is hould do blankie really as it's a gift and Clapotis is only for me :o)